Verizon Launching Motorola Droid 4 on Feb. 10

Verizon Wireless today announced that the Motorola Droid 4 will be available this Friday, Feb. 10 for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

PCMag took a look at the Droid 4 at CES in Las Vegas last month. Though nowhere near as svelte as the Droid Razr, the Droid 4 is surprisingly thin given the keyboard and LTE support, two qualities that usually make for a thicker phone. It measures 5.0 by 2.7 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.3 ounces, but it felt lighter than that. Check out the slideshow below to see how thick is looks next to the recently released Droid Razr Maxx.

The Droid 4 has a 4-inch qHD (540-by-960-pixel) display. Motorola claims the device is enclosed in a water-repellant nanocoating, which should make it a bit more durable than the average smartphone. There's an 8-megapixel camera on the back of the phone with 1080p video recording, plus 16GB of internal storage, a free microSD memory card slot, and a mirroring mode that allows you to easily view images or video on an HDTV.

The real draw here, though, is the keyboard. The keys are chiclet-style, which Motorola claims was done to mimic a laptop keyboard. They've been laser cut, so they're super sharp and precise. Coated in soft touch plastic, the keys are backlit by an LED light.

Motorola is also stressing the business-ready capabilities of the Droid 4. It comes with government-grade encryption (FIPS 140-2) for email, calendars, and contacts. It's also been preloaded with Citrix Receiver for Android (available in webtop) for desktop virtualization and access.

The Droid 3 was a disappointment, because while it was powered by a dual-core processor, it lacked access to Verizon's 4G LTE network. The Samsung Stratosphere stepped in to fill that gap, but it looks like the Droid 4 will take the prize for Verizon's high-end keyboarded LTE smartphone.

Check back with PCMag for a full review of the Droid 4 soon.

For more phone reviews, news, and tips, check out our Cell Phones Product Guide and our list of The 10 Best Phones with Keyboards.

Alex Colon is the managing editor of PCMag's consumer electronics team. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Writing and Literature from Pace University and got his start editing books before deciding technology would probably be a lot more fun.
Though he does the majority of his reading and writing on various digital displays, Alex still loves to sit down and read a good, old-fashioned, paper and ink book in his free time. (Not that there's anything wrong with ebook readers.)
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